<Begin Segment 6>

AL: What do you remember about the days and weeks after Pearl Harbor? Where, did the FBI or the authorities or anybody come to your house?

SK: The FBI did come to the house in January. And I came home from school one day and I saw this big black shiny car sitting in the yard. Of course I ran in the house and I said, "Who's here? Who's here?" you know, fourth grader. And my mother says, "Shhh. Don't say anything." I said, "What's the matter?" She says, "It's the FBI here." And they were, they searched our five acres of farm. Okay, they even, they checked the strawberry sheds, they checked everything. And they, well, they tried to check everything. And they didn't check one part and that was, there was a building, it was a building that had a windmill on it originally. And at the very top we had stored some things. Anyway, the FBI went through the place and they didn't go up there. Or at least they didn't spot the problem there. But anyway, they... and my brother was out someplace and he came home just before the FBI was ready to leave. And they started asking, "Well, do you have any explosives or anything? Do you know where they are?" And, "No, we didn't..." You know, and then my dad said something about, "Oh yes, we do have some dynamite," because it was used to clear the land. Okay, they didn't know where he had hidden it. And they couldn't... nobody could find it. So, anyway, that was one, that was the main reason why he was taken. And of course he, the dynamite was just to clear land and that was... and I think he had only one stick. And they couldn't do too much damage, but he was taken because of that. And that was, that was very hard. It was very, very hard on my brother. And of course to him it was, you know, my dad couldn't hear and he was always bent over in the strawberry fields. He never went to any kinds of meetings or anything, you know. And when they had the community, Japanese community activities, he really, he might go just because he had to go. But he couldn't hear and he didn't... so he never really got and participated in anything specifically.

AL: So he would have been in his early sixties, approximately, if he was born in 1870...

SK: He was sixty-five.

AL: Sixty-five.

SK: Yeah.

AL: Okay. And did you know where they were taking him? Did your mother know where they were taking him?

SK: They took him to the immigration building in Seattle. And he was there for about a month, I think. Or several weeks anyway. And then he, and then they shipped him to Montana, Missoula, Montana. And the fact that he was taken affected... well, it did affect the family, but I think it was my brother was the one that was really taken by that. And that's the first time I've ever heard him cry. And I thought, you know, my big, my big brother, he was quite a tall fellow. And he was a very, very capable fellow. Anyway, he... but I remember seeing him sit there just in tears. And I says, "That couldn't be my brother." But, you know, he was, he was in, it was, it affected him a lot. And from that day on he never talked once about that, the whole problem. People would ask him, you know, over the years, "What was it like?" And he says, "I'm not talking about it."

AL: Is he still living?

SK: No, he passed away a few years ago.

AL: When did you, when did you first hear from your father? I mean, how did you know that he was at Missoula?

SK: Well, we used to go into town to visit him at the immigration office where they kept him. And, well, and the family did. And then just before he left for Missoula, they brought me into town to see him. And that was the one and only time I saw him before he went.

AL: What do you remember about the visit?

SK: Nothing much other than, you know, first of all, my dad couldn't hear so I just, I kind of talked to him, but that's about it. I don't remember too much about that incident other than seeing him.

<End Segment 6> - Copyright © 2008 Manzanar National Historic Site and Densho. All Rights Reserved.